{"id":557839,"date":"2025-11-08T19:15:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T19:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/557839\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T19:15:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T19:15:33","slug":"whitechapel-community-marches-against-far-right-ukip-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/557839\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitechapel community marches against far-right UKIP rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whitechapel\u2019s Bengali community gathered on Saturday 25 October to oppose UKIP\u2019s \u2018Mass-Deportations Tour\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands gathered as anti-racist organisations, trade unions and supporters joined Muslim protesters, who paused to pray during the march from Whitechapel Town Hall to Altab Ali Park.<\/p>\n

\"AMuslims come together to pray in the street. Credit: Salam Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

UKIP\u2019s so-called \u2018crusade\u2019 to \u2018reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists\u2019 was banned by Metropolitan Police, who cited a \u2018realistic prospect of serious disorder\u2019.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Altab Ali park, Abdullah Ali, 50s, from Spitalfields, said that they had taken to the streets to \u2018stand up against racism and defend our community\u2019.<\/p>\n

For him, the UKIP tour represented\u00a0\u2018<\/strong>purposeful agitation\u2019 with terms like \u2018crusade\u2019 intended \u2018to incite hatred towards Muslims.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ali said: \u201cAnybody has a right to protest, we can\u2019t stop that, but some of the premises they are basing their arguments on are either false or extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

UKIP said its revised march would start from Brompton Oratory, a Catholic church in Kensington and Chelsea, and conclude by Marble Arch in the City of Westminster, according to its X account.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Police invoked the Public Order Act \u2014 first introduced to curb Oswald Mosley\u2019s British Union of Fascists \u2014 to prevent UKIP supporters from gathering in Tower Hamlets, home to the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"WomenWomen, Trade Unions, and Jewish Socialists march together. Credit: Salam Jone<\/strong>s<\/p>\n

Nick Tenconi, the UKIP leader, has framed the party\u2019s Mass-Deportation Tour around the theme of the crusades\u2014military campaigns waged by Christians, primarily to reclaim Holy Land from Muslim control in the 11th to 14th centuries\u2014promising to \u2018reinstate Christianity back into the heart of government\u2019 and to \u2018declare war on the radical Islamists\u2019 if he is elected, according to a video he posted on X.<\/p>\n

His X account also includes a video in which he performs a gesture resembling a Nazi salute.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Counter-protestors in Whitechapel drew parallels with the East End\u2019s history of anti-fascist resistance, particularly the Jewish immigrants\u2019 defiance of Mosley\u2019s Blackshirts at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.<\/p>\n

Cassius J Kalany, 27, from Hammersmith, was at the counter-protest and said: \u201cYou\u2019ve got UKIP, BNP, National Front, there is always a new iteration of [the far-right].<\/p>\n

\u201cUKIP are irrelevant compared to Reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoSTANDING TOGETHER: two men embrace, one wearing Bengali Regiment military insignia. Credit: Salam Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kalany, who is a writer for\u00a0Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, suggested that migrants had always been scapegoated \u2018from the time my grandma arrived here to the time of the refugee crisis\u2019.<\/p>\n

For him, racism functions as a mechanism to divide workers, encouraging hostility towards migrants who often face low pay and limited legal protections.<\/p>\n

Large numbers of Bengali migrants settled in Britain after 1971 UK immigration law changes encouraged post-war temporary workers to remain and bring their families.<\/p>\n

Many were escaping the genocide of Bengalis by the Pakistani Army during the country\u2019s war of independence \u2014 itself a legacy of British colonial Partition.<\/p>\n

Ali said: \u201cWe are sons of migrants. We support any migrant seeking asylum due to oppression or war, and sadly, a lot of these wars are actually created and instigated by some of our host countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali was speaking beside Altab Ali Park\u2014named after a Bangladeshi textile worker murdered in a racist attack in 1978.<\/p>\n

Before Bengalis, the East End\u2019s garment industry was run by French Protestant Huguenots and then Jewish immigrants, both fleeing persecution; and Brick Lane Mosque was built as a chapel for French Protestant refugees before being used as a Methodist chapel and then a synagogue.<\/p>\n

One anonymous protestor described the day as \u2018amazing\u2019 \u2013 feeling the energy and solidarity that comes from gathering together.<\/p>\n

As the crowds of trade unions, politicians<\/a>, women, older residents, and anti-racist supporters dispersed, a group of young men remained, all wearing black and many covering their faces, \u2018standing firm\u2019 and \u2018protecting [their] community\u2019, even as Tenconi continued posting provocations on X.<\/p>\n

\"\"Black block gather in Altab Ali Park. Credit: Ivy Burnett<\/strong><\/p>\n

Feature image credit: Salam Jones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whitechapel\u2019s Bengali community gathered on Saturday 25 October to oppose UKIP\u2019s \u2018Mass-Deportations Tour\u2019 Thousands gathered as anti-racist organisations,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[178036,178037,21710,178038,178039,748,5554,25186,393,1105,4884,41,257,10435,178040,5805,6657,17768,18744,15894,28263,178041,13195,16,68103,15,62676],"class_list":{"0":"post-557839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-altab-ali-park","9":"tag-anti-fascist","10":"tag-bangladesh","11":"tag-banglatown","12":"tag-bengali","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-community","15":"tag-demonstration","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-far-right","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-islam","20":"tag-london","21":"tag-march","22":"tag-mass-deportation-tour","23":"tag-migrants","24":"tag-migration","25":"tag-muslims","26":"tag-protest","27":"tag-racism","28":"tag-rally","29":"tag-spitalfields","30":"tag-trade-unions","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-ukip","33":"tag-united-kingdom","34":"tag-whitechapel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115515683832111743","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}